UPDF attacks ADF camps in DRC

The Uganda People’s Defence Force army has carried out a number of attacks on camps believed to house Allied Democratic Forces rebels.

According to the UPDF spokesperson Brig.Richard Karemire, following intelligence between both the Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo, the rebels were planning to attack Uganda.

“ In a preemptive move, this afternoon UPDF conducted attacks on their camps in Eastern DRC,”Brig.Karemire said.

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He added that intelligence reports had confirmed that the rebel group that recently carried out an attack on the UN peace keepers under MONUSCO were planning to attack various places in Uganda and therefore they had to preempt them.

The ADF, a Ugandan rebel outfit a few weeks ago killed at least fourteen Tanzanian United Nations peacekeepers and wounded 53 others in a raid on their base in the North Kivu province of DRC in what has been described as the deadliest attack on UN forces in the recent years.

The volatile North Kivu province borders Uganda and Rwanda.Army spokesperson Brig.Richard Karemire, after the attack said UPDF is ready to retaliate in case of any attack by the rebels to the East African country.

“If these terrorists attacked Uganda, we would not hesitate to exercise the right to hot pursuit,”Brig.Karemire told the Nile Post recently.

In the 1990s, the ADF rebels terrorised the Rwenzori region in the districts of Kasese, Bundibugyo and Kabarole for almost 10 years. During the insurgency, the rebels are believed to have killed more than 3,000 people and displaced 100,000.

On June 8, 1998, the rebels raided Uganda Technical College Kichwamba in Kabarole district and burnt 80 students alive in three dormitories and abducted others.

In 2013, more than 10,000 refugees crossed into Uganda at the Busunga border post in Bundibugyo district. They fled after rebels attacked the town of Kamango, 11 kilometres from the DRC-Uganda border.